Archive for November, 2006

What destinations are hot? What destinations are up and coming? What are the big issues or emerging trends in travel?

The answer to these questions depends a lot on where you live and what newspapers you read. Here’s a snapshot of what the Weekend Travel sections looked like from London to Dublin, San Francisco to Sydney.

• In the USA the travel buzz was all about winter destinations and places to hit the slopes. The New York Times featured skiing in British Columbia, Japan, and Switzerland. The Times also ran a good piece on Tasmania, Australia. The San Francisco Chronicle stayed closed to home, justly signing the praises of Lake Tahoe.
• In the UK the Guardian said ‘enough’ to stories about snow and ski, and instead put its travel spotlight on mountainboarding on the Isle of Wight. It’s the first time we’ve heard of mountainboarding — looks a bit mad if you want our opinion. The Guardian was also talking up Australia in the run-up to the Ashes, which pits the Brits against the Aussies in one of cricket’s most important competitions. The Ashes will be played in Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney.
• Across the Irish Sea, the Irish Times put the spotlight on South America and, as you do, shopping in Paris.
• Down Under in Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald was off and running to China, while Melbourne’s The Age had plenty to say about Egypt.

So what’s the travel buzz in your local newspaper?

-Scott McNeely

Drinking the local brew, be it beer, tea or coffee, in neighborhood pub or cafe is a great way to step out of the tourist role and into a traveler one. Luckily, we’ve got a few tours that can set you on the right path.

You can belly up to the bar on a Key West pub crawl. Or if you are in Ireland, why not experience our Traditional Irish Musical Pub Crawl. (Don’t just take our word for it, the reviews have been glowing!) You can cool off in Sydney at the Minus 5 Ice Bar. Take a San Francisco City and Brewery Tour and taste some legendary Nor Cal brews. From Tiki Drinks to Wine Tasting, and Coffee Plantation Tours to Traditional Tea Gardens, we have something to quench your sightseeing thirst.

Early gifts from Viator include holiday-themed destination experiences, seasonal excitement and savings on activities around the world

San Francisco, CA. – November 20, 2006 – Travelers can add some cheer to the holiday season this year by taking advantage of seasonal destination activities around the globe. Viator.com has a number of activities to make the most of a holiday getaway, a winter wonderland, or a night out on the town close to home. Many of Viator’s featured holiday activities take place for a very limited time, or in some cases just once, so travelers should plan quickly to avoid missing out on once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Spur-of-the-moment travelers, however, are also in luck as Viator adds new activities every week, with plans for special Las Vegas New Year’s excitement coming soon. Viator.com gift certificates can also provide a great solution for the last minute shopper, redeemable toward featured holiday activities and other worldwide experiences.

Northeastern United States
There’s no place like New York during the holidays. The New York Holiday Lights Tour includes sparkling spectacles like the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree and Ice Skating Rink, world famous window displays of Lord & Taylor and Saks and a festive laser light show at Grand Central Station. This tour runs from November 28 to January 6, with prices starting at $39.00 for adults and $32.50 for children. It’s got glamorous costumes, synchronized kicks to the ceiling, a 3-D film and even an appearance by Santa Claus. Tour the home of founding father and U.S. President George Washington during the Mount Vernon by Candlelight Tour in Washington, DC. Fridays and Saturdays from December 1 through 9, visitors can see how the Washington family entertained during the winter season as 18th Century characters share stories about Christmas hospitality from 200 years ago. Hot cider and cookies by the fire conclude the tour, priced from $39 for adults and $19 for children.

West Coast Cruisin’
A Pacific Northwest holiday tradition is the The Christmas Ship® Festival. Aboard ship, some of the finest Northwest choirs sing holiday greetings, while Santa mingles with guests spreading holiday cheer. On the water, other decorated boats join in the festivities by following The Spirit of Seattle, the official Christmas Shipâ„¢, forming the world’s largest holiday flotilla. Running only from December 1-23, cruise tickets are $22.00 for adults and $11.50 for kids. Bring the whole family to Carlsbad, California to celebrate the joys of the season at LEGOLAND. The Holiday Block Party is a two-week only event, running from December 21-30. Guests can see the only 30 foot Christmas tree built with over 245,000 forest green DUPLO bricks, and a LEGO Santa complete with sleigh and a team of reindeer. Adult day passes are $52, kids pay $44. Book and travel by December 31, and adults save 10% off each ticket.

Holiday Dinner Shows
A holiday tradition makes its return to Orlando as Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede Dinner & Show celebrates the holidays with Christmas at Dixie Stampede. The show features spectacular holiday music, ice skating, snowfalls, majestic horses and even an appearance by St. Nick himself. Tickets start at $49.50 for adults and $23.94 for kids. The adult ticket price includes Dolly’s holiday gift – a 5% discount through the holidays. The Arabian Nights Annual Holiday Show in Orlando is full acrobatic elves, dancing reindeer, Sugar Plum Fairies, a disbelieving Sultan, and a determined Princess with her Genie. The Holiday Show delivers all the romance and excitement only Arabian Nights can bring to life! The show runs through January 1, 2007. Tickets start at $49.60 for adults and $31.00 for children.

Christmas with the King
Celebrate the Holidays at Graceland, and experience the holiday décor just as Elvis did every year. In addition to the exterior splendor, the Platinum Tour package includes the Graceland Mansion audio-guided tour along with self-guided tours of Elvis’ two custom jets, the Elvis Presley Automobile Museum, a memorabilia museum called ‘Sincerely Elvis’, the all-new Elvis After Dark exhibit and a 22 minute film showcasing Elvis’ fascinating career. Prices start at $27.20 for adults and $13.94 for children.

Once-in-a-Lifetime in Austria
Travelers stroll through the foothills of the Alps along the Salzach River with a knowledgeable tour guide during the Silent Night, Holy Night Christmas Eve Guided Tour. The Silent Night Chapel in Oberndorf (Salzburg, Austria) celebrates Christmas Eve Holy Mass outside because of the small size of the interior. This guided tour starts at $44.00 for adults and $22.63 for children. The Christmas Time Horse Drawn Sleigh Ride starts with a ride along the Salzach River Valley past many of Austria’s most popular ski resorts, followed by an ascent up the “Steirische Ramsau” 3,281 feet above sea level. Passengers enjoy a beautiful Austrian village and lunch at a local inn while they listen for the jingling of sleigh bells – the signal to embark on this once-in-a-lifetime journey by sleigh through a winter wonderland. From December 25 to 31 only, this tour starts at $60.33 for adults and $44.00 for children.

Say G’day to 2007 before Most of the World
The clock strikes midnight in Australia long before many other continents around the world. Ring in 2007 on the Sydney Showboats 2006 New Year’s Eve Celebration Cruise where a glittering cabaret spectacular in the tradition of the Moulin Rouge and the Lido awaits revelers, along with a three-course gourmet meal, fine wines and one of the best fireworks displays in the world, from one of the most beautiful vantage points in the world, Sydney Harbour. Seats are limited and this cruise will sell out. Standard package prices start at $594.74 per person, and premium package prices start at $743.62. Revelers can stay in the same time-zone but usher in the New Year in a different Australian city. The Melbourne 2006 New Year’s Eve Party Cruise features fabulous food, flowing drinks and non-stop entertainment, including spectacular views of the fireworks at midnight. The Silver Package departing from Princess Walk starts at $163.75 per person, and the Gold Package, departing from Southbank Promenade starts at $182.36 per person.

Winter Wonderland
Beginners and advanced snowmobile riders alike enjoy the views of incredible Lake Tahoe and the Carson Valley during the Top of Tahoe Tour in South Lake Tahoe. The two-hour tour, with experienced guides, starts at $109.00 per person and winds its way through the dense forests and pine and aspen nearly 9,000 feet above sea level. The Evening Ice Walk and Campfire in Banff, Canada, starting at $43.46 for adults and $22.18 for children, includes a brisk stroll to historic Stewart Canyon Bridge and an exploration along the shoreline of Lake Minnewanka. Ice-hikers listen to the crackling of the frozen lake’s ice cap and then the crackling of the campfire, capping the evening off with hot chocolate while roasting marshmallows.

* All prices listed are per person and are accurate at press time.

Every schoolchild knows the original Seven Wonders of the World, right? Lessee … there was a lighthouse, maybe some stables, a library, and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. I forget the rest. No worries: some folks reckon there are enough impressive structures still standing to warrant a new list, and you get to vote for them!

The Sydney Opera House

One candidate is the Sydney Opera House, and they’re kicking off the campaign at the Opera House forecourt on Tuesday, November 21 - though you’ll need to be there bright and early as it starts at 6am and wraps up by 9am. There’s a sausage sizzle, prizes, and splendid views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the city skyline.

The Opera House is a stunner and a strong contender, but it’s got some stiff competition for the list of New Wonders of the World, including Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, Rome’s Colosseum, Agra’s Taj Mahal and Easter Island.

-Bruce Melendy

Like everyone else who takes a guided tour, I had an idea that our guide would be a boring chap who prattled on endlessly about how high a particular mountain was, how deep a lake, how old a building etc. Guides seem to adore numbers. But on a recent tour to the Great Wall at Badaling, outside Beijing, all those preconceptions were proved wrong. Our guide James Lee, pictured here, was a surgeon until he got the opportunity to become a Tour Guide, a much more exalted position, apparently, in China.

The badge says “James Lee G001″

Is there a better tour guide in China than James? Probably, it’s a big place after all. But his badge says G001, which is suggestive of high rank, and he really is a fantastic guy.

He figured out after 5 minutes that we were totally and completely not interested in any information that contained a date or a number, but we did like to learn about people and the culture, especially the culture of today’s China.

On the way back from Badaling we got talking about the strange graffiti we were seeing everywhere. He was reluctant at first to admit what it was about but fessed up in the end: the ten-digit numbers we were seeing all over the place were cell-phone numbers (how hard was that?) and the adjacent symbol indicated which specific illegal item you would find through this number: guns, drugs, hookers, fake passports, etc.

Call now for a fake ID… or an AK47, maybe?

We did a bunch of other tours around Beijing (including the Forbidden City: very cool!) and James was there for all of them. But the most important thing we learned on these tours?

Don’t imagine you know anything about your tour guide, and especially don’t give him a hard time. He may decide to migrate next year, and the next time you see him might be in the Operating Room…

-Rod Cuthbert

For all the effort we put into sourcing great tours for our customers, there are some things you just need to research and manage on your own. Here’s what I mean: I was in Tokyo a little while ago, my first time, and was blown away — as most people are — by this incredibly busy, colourful and crazy place. To get myself oriented I took the Tokyo Morning Tour and from the Tokyo Tower got a good idea of the scale and “shape” of Tokyo…

And that’s all great, I enjoyed it, but there was another side of Tokyo I wanted to see, and I couldn’t find it in any of our tours. I wanted to find out how a city this big works so well; to see the infrastructure that makes it all come together. That’s not the stuff of tours, so I had to start asking cab drivers…And eventually I came up with the goods.

The Tokyo Fish Market (Tsukiji) is an amazing place that jumps into life around 5am each day, and by 6am is definitely the only show in town. Every day millions (well, maybe thousands) of fresh and frozen tuna and other fish are sold here using the most theatrical and fast-paced auction system you can imagine.

This is live theater at its best, and there’s no tour that takes you here (the liability insurance would be a killer… men on bikes and scooters with trailers carrying 80-kilo bluefin tuna are racing by constantly, and if you’re in the way, tough luck!) but your cab driver will understand when you hop in at 5:30am and say “Tsukiji!”

What’s the point of all this? No matter how deep Viator gets you under the surface of a destination, you’ll always have room to dig deeper with your own “private” tours, and they can be just as much fun!

-Rod Cuthbert

Popular Science announced the best of what’s new in 2006. And the much anticipated Grand Canyon Skywalk has been recognized as one of the many engineering marvels due out this year. No clear word on when it’s open to the public, but we’ll keep you posted.

So, in the spirit of innovation, we’d like to give you some creative ways to see the Grand Canyon. Of course, seeing the Grand Canyon by Helicopter or by airplane, is simply amazing. If you want some time on the canyon floor, combine your flight with a float down the Colorado River. Can’t choose between the Grand Canyon Helicopter Tour, the Airplane tour of the Grand Canyon or a Boat Tour? Do it all on the combination airplane, helicopter, and boat tour.

Got a favorite way to visit the Grand Canyon? Share it with us!

-Suzann M

Travel Wishlist: November #2

If you would have asked me yesterday, my wishlist would have been all about sandboarding in Dubai, because one of our staff members (you know who you are, Ken) has a few photos of himself sandboarding in Dubai, which we thought would make a great post in the Viator travel blog. You know, staff member doing something very cool in a far-off exotic land.

But I digress (as soon as Ken gets us his photos we’ll post them).

Today, though, I am thinking about a New Year’s Eve Cruise in New York. The thought process went something like this: It’s nearly the end of November… I can’t believe it’s almost the holidays… holidays?… I better get my mom a present… I wonder if she’d like a helicopter tour in Los Angeles… hang on, what am I doing for New Year’s this year?… wouldn’t it be cool to go somewhere… what about Singapore?… too far… maybe New York, yeah, New York, wouldn’t it be AMAZING to see the fireworks on the river, I wonder if there’s a cruise or boat tour, bingo! Hello New Year’s Eve Cruise in New York.

So there you have it. Today’s Travel Wishlist.

What’s on your wishlist?

We believe that everyone should have dreams of playing among the stars, whether it’s the Hollywood sort or the astronomically inclined. So, when we see that NASA’s planning their first nighttime space shuttle launch in over 4 years, well we thought we’d try to find some ways for Viator Travelers to join in the fun.

If you are in Orlando, check out the “Space Pass” option for the chance to have lunch with an astronaut on the Kennedy Space Center Tour. Or wander over to Ft. Lauderdale to experience escape of a Zero Gravity Flight. We also like to think that even the more “down to earth” sightseeing flights over the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, or New Zealand’s Milford Sound, are simply out of this world!

Got a favorite other-world-landscape or a favorite stargazing spot? Share your tips and tricks with your fellow travelers at Viator.

In case you weren’t lucky enough to be in Los Angeles this week for PhoCusWright 2006, one of the travel industry’s major conferences, you missed Viator’s very own CEO, Rod Cuthbert, speaking about the important difference between ‘travelers’ and ‘tourists’.

At Viator our goal is to make sure you have an unforgettable experience each and every time you travel. Don’t just visit a destination, experience it! That’s our story at Viator, and we’re sticking to it. Read a recap of Rod’s ‘Tourists into Travelers’ discussion, or cut to the chase and start planning your own next trip.